AN: Riku: As we draw near the end of part 1 there is still so much to cover. What will be next? Let's find out!
-
There was a high level of panicked air that loomed in the Citadel. Hardly anyone slept, and hardly anyone could sit long enough before coming filled with anxiety.
It had been five days since the failed rescue mission, and 4 days since the last video message. There was nothing after that, only dead silence.
As one last advisor left the king's office, Cor came in to look over his lord. "We have no hint of his highness still being held inside Insomnia." He said while standing tall in front of the desk.
Regis let out a long shaky breath. His hair was messy, with many strains falling in front of his face. He could barely keep his composure up anymore, especially since he spent days on end locked in his meetings over the situation.
"He's out there somewhere... Drusus wouldn't have gone too far, yet we have no further clues since we lost the tracking."
"If they've left the city, we do have a clue." Cor said softly. His expression had been steely since the failed rescue attempt, and few Crownsguard dared to approach him. "Someone let them out of the city lockdown. We have a leak in the Guard, and that's a place to start."
"Yes. I want every Guard who monitors the wall investigated. I will not tolerate this!" Regis slammed his fist onto his desk. "They've done enough to my son, I want them found now."
The air in the room started to feel a bit cooler. Cor knew when Regis got truly mad, his magic would rise, boiling like a pot of water.
Cor took a step toward the desk. "Regis, I've started the investigation of all the current guards during the time of the rescue attempt. I will be sure to keep you aware of what we find."
He took a breath and pushed ahead for the next thing he said, "Right now, you need to take a moment to rest."
Regis shook his head. "How can I rest? Every moment I wait, I worry about what they are doing to my son. He looked so tired in that last video... so defeated. I want nothing more than to have him safe in my arms."
"But you'll be no use to him if you collapse from running yourself ragged before we can find him. Trust that we are doing everything we can to help you and get him back to you."
"I know. Thank you, Cor. I know you mean well, but it is hard to stop worrying when we don't even know what they are doing to him, or even Prompto for that matter. Have you still no word from his parents?"
A frown passed over Cor's face before he cleared it away. "Nothing. I've made sure to leave a message everyday for them."
"Something will have to be done about that when we get the boys back. I cannot stand parents who are that inattentive."
"I'll start a case for that, for us to work on when they come back." Cor agreed with a little nod.
"Thank you," Regis replied. "Now that will be the only easy matter, the rest of this... it's going to take much more work."
"Everyone would agree with you about that. I'll be sure to keep you up to date on the investigation, but I'm keeping it quiet for the time being to keep the leak from knowing about it."
"I'm surprised that Drusus hasn't released any of this to the public. He is the type of man that knows how the public would react, yet he is keeping everything quiet."
Cor nodded at that. "We just have to be ready for the moment he decides to do so. I imagine he's just biding his time to strike."
"And we shall bid our time, until we can safely secure the boys without any reason to give into demands," Regis added.
"Of course. Is there anything else you would like me to start working on for the time being?"
"Right now... I don't know. Maybe I do need that rest you were talking about."
"No one would begrudge you for needing some rest. I imagine most of us need some now." Cor agreed easily.
At that moment there was a knock on Regis's door. "Uh, sir?"
"Yes, you may come in."
One of his Crownsguard came in with a laptop. He looked rather worried as he approached. "We have received a new encoded video."
"Would you like me to leave, or stay and watch with you?" Cor offered as the laptop was set on the desk.
"Having someone here would be wise. During the last one Clarus stepped out for a moment and I nearly broke a window," Regis chuckled weakly.
"Of course your majesty. I will return the laptop in a bit." Cor told the Crownsguard, who quickly left the room with a small bow.
The Marshall moved around the desk to stand behind Regis so they could start the video. He made sure to brace himself for what terrible thing they would show to them this time.
The video showed a low quality security camera footage of a prison cell. Inside the cell showed Noctis sleep with his head on Prompto's lap. His face was covered in dirty and what looked like blood, mostly covering the bruises. Prompto looked untouched, except dirty, and both of them had slightly matted hair.
Prompto cradled Noctis's head in one hand as the other was draped over his chest. He was looking down at Noctis, his eyes red, evidence he had been crying earlier. Though the footage was grainy, Prompto's lips seemed to be moving, muttering something softly. Cor turned up the audio on the computer and they could begin to hear the faint sounds from the room.
"I'm sorry, I know I keep saying that, but what else am I going to say," Prompto said.
"Looks like only Noctis is hurt." Cor mused softly, quickly taking in the scene for any possible clues. He wanted them to give him something to start finding them.
Regis tried his best not to let the thoughts of only Noctis being hurt sink in. He had guessed why that was, but he needed to be logical here. He had to think and analyze and not let his father's affection cloud his thoughts. He could wait to do that later.
"And it looks like they haven't showered in days. There..." he pointed to the screen where white circles were on the ground. "Those look like plates. So that means they are feeding them."
"That's good. And I see water bottles, so some hydration. They have a toilet, so less about humiliation. I do see a second cell with some use being shown. Think they are separating them at times?"
As if in response to the question, the door at the end of the hallway slammed open to allow Drusus to come inside. The sound was enough to get Noctis to wake up, and his expression immediately went flat.
"Ah, up from your nap princy? You know the drill, playtime with chocobo is over." Drusus said as he had two of the men open the cell and start to forcefully pull Noctis away from Prompto.
Prompto's grip stayed tightly around Noctis. "P-Please! Just a few minutes longer!"
Noctis reached out to hold onto Prompto. "It's okay, I'll be good tomorrow." He tried to reassure him, even if his voice had a little hitch in it.
"B-But... But you need, you're still hurt," Prompto sobbed.
"It'll be okay. Just- just let go." Noctis replied, holding to his hands as the men started to physically remove them from each other.
Prompto looked to be on the verge of tears, but he nodded and did as Noctis said. The men that were holding on to Noctis pulled him out of that cell and shoved him back into the other. Prompto's entire body shook as he kept trying to hold back his tears.
As soon as Noctis hit the ground, he did his best to try and pick himself off the ground in a better position. His movements were stiff and slow while he bit his lip to keep from making noise.
"I imagine you know the drill at this point. Enjoy your evening boys." Drusus said with a bit of a smile.
The men all laughed before heading out of the cell room, leaving the two boys to be alone. It only took a few seconds since the door closed for Prompto to finally break out crying.
Noctis moved over to the bars so he could lean against them and reach out to Prompto. "I'm here. I'm still here." He begged, trying to get him to reach out as well.
Then the video changed to Drusus alone in a room. "I grow tired of your reluctance. You have 24 hours to make a sign, or we move forward to sending our videos to the media. Your move, your majesty."
The video cut to black after that, leaving Cor and Regis to stare at an empty screen.
"He thinks that this is funny, doesn't he?" Regis grumbled through his gritted teeth.
"Unfortunately, it would seem so. We will prove to him how serious we consider the situation." Cor said softly.
"I can't give in. I would do anything to get Noctis safe, but he knows and I know that doing so would only cause chaos amongst the people. Removing those laws would disrupt everything we've worked hard to build and maintain. There would be mutiny against the crown if they heard I tore down everything just for my son... for the people don't see us as human, just as figures in power."
"Then we will find other ways to get him back. Perhaps, we know what his next move will be. This time we can act first. Either go to the media to make him the bad guy he is, or impose a blackout."
Regis shook his head. "Spreading information about him to the public would only be feeding the fear he wants to create. These things... they must be dealt with accordingly still. We still need to find his new location, keep having the men trace the videos, there has to be some way that they are getting his through without any form of source. Perhaps it is from their ally on the inside..."
"That would be the most logical explanation to all of the encryption. It's another thing I can scan for, to get a good first pool of suspects for people. I should go take care of that. I'll give you my updates as they happen." Cor replied calmly.
"Yes, thank you Cor, you can go to that now."
"Of course Your Majesty. I'll see you later." Cor gave a nod before marching out of the room.
Regis sighed as he opened a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a small photo frame and placed it in front of him. The picture was of him and Noctis from at least ten years ago, long before anything bad had ever happened to his precious son.
His fingers traced the image lightly, tears pricking his eyes. "My little Night Light... just wait a little longer."
Ignis made sure the file was safely saved to his tablet before he started the search for Gladiolus. He had hoped he could find him with the clusters of Crownsguard working to locate the location of the two teenagers, but instead he heard rumors of the Shield spending hours on end in the training room.
Despite his wishes, Ignis found Gladiolus tormenting several training dummies with his great sword. "Gladio, I've got a new video. Would you like to see? It's not great."
Gladio finished a final blow to some of the dummies before dismissing his sword. He walked to the side to pick up a towel and wrapped it around his neck.
"Guess there's no avoiding it."
"You can, if you really don't want to see it. You can keep training until your body gives out." Ignis replied with more bite than he truly meant.
"Igs," Gladio sighed. "You know why I'm doing this."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with you. Or think you aren't going about it in a stupid way." He replied with a soft sigh. "Still, would you like to see the video now, or do you need to stretch and cool down?"
Drinking from his water bottle, Gladio shook his head. He sat down on one of the benches. "I'll just get it over with. Doesn't sound good, so just show me now."
Ignis held back another sigh, instead adjusted his glasses while he started to push some icons on the screen of the tablet to pull up the video. He had seen the video once before, but it still hurt to see both of his friends in such a painful position, especially at the end when they were forced apart.
Gladio nearly crushed his water bottle in his hand. "Those fuckers! I don't care what protocol or laws there are, when I get my hands on those thugs, they will-"
"Gladio! They will suffer the course of justice just like any other citizen of Lucis. That will serve a better purpose than anything else to those who support him." Ignis almost snapped.
"They don't deserve any course of justice! Look at what they did, Ignis! They are keeping our prince, our future king, locked in a dirty cell! They are making him suffer, and the longer we fail to locate him the worse it's going to get!"
"If we don't show them some sort of justice for their crimes, then we just prove their point that we are a strict monarchy with no attention to the people. We have to-'' Ignis had to take a steadying breath at that, "we have to show a bit of compassion to at least allow some justice of peers to allow those who might be on the edge to see we will protect people when needed."
"I don't know if I would call those men actual people," Gladio grumbled. "What compassion can we give to people who are that inhumane? Torturing the crown prince? It's... it just sucks."
Ignis reached out to steady Gladiolus from his anger. "What they are doing is nothing acceptable, and the court of law would see that. They are giving us nothing but the evidence to help hang them. They think they are confident in their methods, but people like us, people who care so much about Noctis, will find the best way to make them suffer and make an example of them."
Gladio breathed in slowly, feeling Ignis's hand on his back. "Thanks Specs... you help keep me steady. It's just not easy. I keep thinking back to that night, keep trying to convince myself I could have done something different. If I hadn't turned away..."
"You trained him to find the best path to safety. We all thought they wouldn't know of the safe room. Someone outsmarted us in a weak moment. I reviewed the tapes, Noctis was going to the safe room you trained him to head toward when there is such a wide scale attack." Ignis assured him.
"Yeah, princess at least remembered that. But it wasn't enough..." Gladio lowered his head. "You think he hates me? For failing at my job?"
Ignis scoffed a little bit. "And what did you fail at in your teaching with the safe rooms?"
"For not being by his side, don't try and turn it around. Yes, he listened to me and headed to the safe room. So what? He didn't make it and was kidnapped before I could even get close to him. I... I remember what you said before, and I'm really trying Igs. I really am. But every time I close my eyes, I see myself back in that situation, and I can't do my damn job."
"Gladio, you cannot blame yourself for being distracted by fighting off other kidnappers while he was getting to safety and finding someone else. You are not omniscient. No one is. I know you are trying to get stronger, and I applaud your efforts, but please do not hurt yourself in your methods."
"I just want to be stronger, for the next time. I got to be."
A sigh passed through Ignis's nose in an attempt to hide his frustration. "You are so strong now, my dear. But, I won't stop you from getting stronger as long as you are safe. When's the last time you rested?"
Gladio looked away, avoiding giving an answer.
"Gladiolus, I will go to your father if you will not get some rest. Come, let me get you some food and water and rest." Ignis said, voice flinty from the response he got.
Turning towards Ignis he gave a lopsided smile. "I can't really say no to you when you use my full name like that, can I?"
Ignis smirked a bit at that. "No, you really can't. Now come on, let me fulfill my promise to you for food and rest." He said as he stood up and offered his hand to Gladiolus.
Gladio took his hand and was pulled up to his feet. The two then walked off, trying to put their minds at ease for the night.
-
AN: GG: So a small snapshot of how everyone else is doing. Tensions are just a bit rough, but maybe they are starting to get a break in the case?